Hamburg Township woman gets jail for larceny

A Hamburg Township woman was sentenced Thursday to nine months in the Livingston County Jail for stealing items from vehicles.

Kayla Marie Garavaglia, 21, also was given credit for 120 days spent in the county jail for larceny from an automobile and breaking and entering a vehicle to steal property valued at less than $200.

"I never want to come to jail again," she told the judge. "I do regret everything I've done."

Police said Garavaglia and co-defendant Jody Lynn Kovarik, 17, of Westland were caught after a victim's brother spooked one of the women when he arrived home in the area of M-36 and Kress Road to find her rooting around in his sister's car. The suspects fled the scene in a blue Ford Focus, and Hamburg Township police officers were initially unable to find the car. The victim, however, spotted a similar vehicle about two hours later and called police.

Officer Kimberly Leeds located the suspects' vehicle parked on Shangrila Drive in the Shangrila subdivision. The unoccupied vehicle's lights were off, but it was still running, police said.

When Leeds checked the area, she spotted two women — Garavaglia and Kovarik — rifling through a vehicle on Shangrila Drive. A subsequent investigation revealed stolen goods — electronic equipment, jewelry, money and more — in the vehicle, police said.

Although both women are suspected of seven larcenies in the area of M-36 and Kress Road, the prosecutor's office agreed not to issue additional charges stemming from the other cases when the two women entered the plea to stealing a Bluetooth device from one vehicle and to breaking into a second vehicle.

Kovarik earlier was sentenced to time already served in the county jail.

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